Graviton Rale Gun

Name: Graviton Rale Gun Species: Jovian Technology: Graviton Weapon

Background

The Graviton Rail Gun is a unique Jovian weapon, designed to use Micro Back-holes and Graviton Waves to penetrate and destroy a shielded target.

The Gun was transported to Earth by a transport Chulip, it is not known why it was was not transported through the use of Boson Technology but it can be presumed that its mechanisms were too sensitive or that the number of Chulips remaining was limited.

The gun arrived on Earth in 2197 and was exclusively deployed in Kursk, Russia (Episode 11 - Finding yourself in a routine plot). Several conventional land and air attacks were made against the weapon before the Nadesico was sent to destroy it, most of the conventional attacks resulted in heavy casualties for the United Earth and no damage was inflicted on the weapon.

The Graviton Rail Gun is different from conventional Jovian Graviton Weapons (the Graviton Beam cannon), which utilize a sustained beam of high velocity Gravitons to slice through an enemies armour. The Rail Gun uses a micro gravity distortion (black hole) and launching it at a single target like an armour penetrating shell.

Even a powerful Distortion Field cannot provide more than minimal protection against the weapon. This was seen when the gun fired on the Nadesico (Episode 11 - Finding yourself in a routine plot) and penetrated its shields in a single shot.

It is possible that the weapon was an experimental piece of technology, deployed as field test, or to gauge the United Earths action when faced with a new type of weapon. It is certain that the weapon is a line of sight cannon and is it apparently too large to easily mount on a standard Jovian Frigate and its recharging time is too slow for it to be mounted as the main weapon for a battleship.

The Nadesico launched aerial an attack on the Rail Gun in 2197, but without being told of the capabilities of the weapon, they walked into the same trap as the other teams dispatched to the area. 

The Rale Gun is capable of firing through a considerable thickness of dense martial, it fired through several meters of rock before it penetrated the Nadesico's Distortion Field. 

The Nadesico's shields were unable to defend against the cannons fire power and the Nadesico had to launch a ground assault to destroy the weapon. Even though much of the force of the weapon was absorbed when the distortion penetrated the mountain, it was still capable of piercing the Nadesico's shields and damaging one of its Phase Transition engines. The distortion continued after penetrating the Nadesico's shields and imploded in space.

The weapon did not appear to  have its own shields but it was protected by heavy armour and was defended by several squadrons of Jovian insects. The cannon was also protected by anti aircraft cannons.

Firing the Weapon

The Graviton Rail Gun uses a pulsed wave of Graviton Energy to propel a compact Graviton Distortion at an enemy vessel in a similar way to the way a conventional artillery battery uses a powerful explosive to launch a solid artillery shell. Where the weapon differs from a conventional artillery piece is that it does not need to generate a powerful explosion. Instead, the Rail Gun barrel generate many small Graviton Waves inside its barrel as the Distortion is launched. With each pulse the velocity of the Graviton distortion is increased until it is launched.

This method allows the black-hole to gained an incredible velocity without the danger that comes from generating a powerful wave inside the weapons narrow barrel.

The barrel of the Rail Guns contain many Graviton generators which are activated as the Distortion is launched, pushing the Black-hole out of the barrel.  This method allows the weapon to be fired without having to generate a high powered wave, or use a conventional explosive device, it also allows the Distortion to be fired at a higher velocity than if it was launched from an ordinary cannon.

When a Distortion has been fired its effects vary on where it explodes, if the black-hole explodes inside a planets atmosphere the Graviton Distortion acts like a black hole, consuming the local area and generating dangerous gamma radiation before it implodes and disappears (a black-hole will not actually explode but the term is used because the weapon is an artillery piece). At this time no Distortions have been fired to implode inside the Earth's atmosphere. 

The affects of a distortion exploding in space would be less damaging than an atmospheric explosion and it would only destroy a localized target and any residual radiation would disperse quickly.

Local Defenses

The Rail Gun sent to Kursk had heavy anti-aircraft defenses and could easily defend its self from single vessels, it was however vulnerable to ground attack.